The safety of blood products from their source, the blood donor, until their use in the
recipient is of the utmost importance. Blood banks have a constant concern to find the
ideal profile of the donor with the potential of repeat donations, in order to target
campaigns towards this group. The importance of these donors should be stressed, as the
rejection rate due to positive serology or high-risk behavior is low. Blood donation is
regulated by the Brazilian Health Ministry through the National Health Surveillance Agency
(ANVISA)(11. Brasil. Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária. Resolução - RDC nº
12, de 2 de janeiro de 2001. Aprova o regulamento técnico sobre padrões
microbiológicos para alimentos [Internet]. Brasília, DF: Ministério da Saúde; 2001.
[cited 2013 Sept 17]. Available from: http://portal.anvisa.gov.br/wps/wcm/connect/
a47bab8047458b909541d53fbc4c6735/RDC_12_2001.pdf?MOD=AJPERES
http://portal.anvisa.gov.br/wps/wcm/conn...
). One study
presented in this issue of the Revista Brasileira de Hematologia e
Hemoterapia(22. Borelli SD, Mazzola JC, Matta AC, Takemoto AY, Bértoli M. Blood
discard rate and the prevalence of infectious and contagious diseases in blood donors
from provincial towns of the state of Paraná, Brazil. Rev Bras Hematol Hemoter.
2013;35(6):395-9.)
investigated the predominance of infections-contagious diseases through positive
serological markers in blood donors of the Regional Blood Center in Maringá, Parana between
January 2011 to December 2011. This current study showed that the predominance of
infectious diseases among the blood donors was 1.55%. These results demonstrate a decrease
in seropositivity in this population, which could be explained by the effectiveness of
clinical and serological screening. Additionally, 52.5% of discarded blood bags by
serological screening were characterized by the anti-HBc serological marker, which
demonstrated a high prevalence for the hepatitis B virus in the blood donor population. The
prevalences of serological markers were: anti-HBc (1.03%), HBsAg (0.07%), syphilis (0.35%),
anti-HCV (0.04%), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV - 0.02%) and Chagas disease (0.02%). No
positivity occurred in this study with respect to human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV) I/II
markers. A study conducted by Salles et al. in 2001 showed that the prevalence of
infectious diseases among donors was: 0.04% for HIV, 0.21% for hepatitis C virus (HCV),
0.06% for HTLV, 0.14% for Chagas' disease, and 1.10% for syphilis. For hepatitis B virus,
the prevalences found were 0.14% for anti-HBc and HBsAg, 1.68% for anti-HBc and anti-HBs,
and 1.67% for anti-HBc in isolation(33. Salles NA, Sabino EC, Barreto CC, Barreto AM, Otani MM, Chamone DF.
[The discarding of blood units and the prevalence of infectious diseases in donors at
the Pro-Blood Foundation/Blood Center of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil]. Rev Panam
Salud Publica. 2003;13(2-3):111-6. Portuguese.). As new technologies are developed, the discovery of new
infectious agents and the reemergence of old threats are an ongoing challenge in blood
banks. I believe that similar studies should be encouraged in order to reinforce the
importance of characterizing the prevalence of these serological markers in the blood donor
population. In conclusion, this study is of great scientific relevance and reinforces the
importance in establishing the prevalence of serological markers in blood donors. These
results increase the knowledge about the role of the educational measures that have been
carried out and may support the structuring of new awareness-raising campaigns for
spontaneous blood donation.
References
-
1Brasil. Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária. Resolução - RDC nº 12, de 2 de janeiro de 2001. Aprova o regulamento técnico sobre padrões microbiológicos para alimentos [Internet]. Brasília, DF: Ministério da Saúde; 2001. [cited 2013 Sept 17]. Available from: http://portal.anvisa.gov.br/wps/wcm/connect/ a47bab8047458b909541d53fbc4c6735/RDC_12_2001.pdf?MOD=AJPERES
» http://portal.anvisa.gov.br/wps/wcm/connect/a47bab8047458b909541d53fbc4c6735/RDC_12_2001.pdf?MOD=AJPERES -
2Borelli SD, Mazzola JC, Matta AC, Takemoto AY, Bértoli M. Blood discard rate and the prevalence of infectious and contagious diseases in blood donors from provincial towns of the state of Paraná, Brazil. Rev Bras Hematol Hemoter. 2013;35(6):395-9.
-
3Salles NA, Sabino EC, Barreto CC, Barreto AM, Otani MM, Chamone DF. [The discarding of blood units and the prevalence of infectious diseases in donors at the Pro-Blood Foundation/Blood Center of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil]. Rev Panam Salud Publica. 2003;13(2-3):111-6. Portuguese.
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
2013
History
-
Received
17 Sept 2013 -
Accepted
20 Sept 2013